If you’ve got a sneaking suspicion that there is alien life out there, you are, er, not alone!
In fact, a study shows 95 per cent of us – including top academics, doctors and scientists – believe in extra-terrestrial beings … but we won’t admit it.
Fear of being laughed at has meant most people say they don’t believe in galaxies far, far away.
To investigate belief in extra-terrestrial life, researchers from Harvard University in the US and Reichman University in Israel quizzed 6,114 highly-educated and scientifically interested people with degrees, postgraduate qualifications and doctorates.
The average age was 49, with most based in the UK, US, Spain and Canada.
The study found that 95 per cent believed extra-terrestrial intelligent life exists. Only one per cent – just 60 people – believed alien life definitely or probably does not exist.
But the group also estimated only half (48 per cent) of their peers would share their belief that intelligent alien life exists.
The researchers wrote: ‘Beliefs about extra-terrestrial intelligence existence remain socially constrained despite near-universal private acceptance.
A new study shows that 95 per cent of highly-educated people believe alien life exists. Pictured: The character E.T. from Steven Spielberg’s 1982 classic of the same name
The group also estimated only half (48 per cent) of their peers would share their belief that intelligent alien life exists (Stock image)
‘Concerns about appearing unscientific, particularly among educated people, may suppress expression.
‘The association of extra-terrestrial intelligence beliefs with fringe communities and conspiracy theories creates reputation risk.
‘This misperception creates a self-perpetuating cycle: individuals remain silent about their beliefs, interpreting others’ silence as sceptics.’
Those questioned also underestimated the strength of the conviction of experts, believing that only 21 per cent definitely thought there was alien life, when nearly 60 per cent of astrobiologists – scientists who study the possibility of life beyond Earth – believe in aliens.
The study – reported in Cornell University’s ArXiv science journal – termed the hidden beliefs as people staying in the ‘cosmic closet’, adding that it ‘represents one of the largest documented cases of pluralistic ignorance’ – where people conform to a norm they disagree with, as they mistakenly believe most others accept it.
Last month one of Britain’s top space scientists declared she is ‘absolutely convinced’ there are aliens out there.
Dame Maggie Aderin–Pocock, from University College London’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, said she expects a ‘positive detection’ of life on another planet by 2075.
